Just eight days ago, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams reached general availability for Office 365 Business users. One week after the initial global launch, Microsoft has also announced that the chat-based workspace is now also available for Office 365 Education users, free for faculty, staff and students with Office 365 Education suite licensing, Education, Education Plus and Education E5, as well as existing Education E3 plans (via ZDNet.)
According to Microsoft, starting March 21st, administrators can enable Microsoft Teams for their institutions through the Office 365 admin center. The company also notes that Teams is also only available as a free add-in to Office 365 Education suites, and will not be available as a standalone service in education. Microsoft explains:
Although Teams is off by default, IT admins can easily configure access at the license level for Faculty & Teachers and/or Students. We recommend that IT admins enable Microsoft Teams and begin using it now within their IT organization; and with targeted groups of faculty, staff, teachers, and higher-education students. Learn how to manage licenses through the Office 365 admin center and turn on Teams today.
Teams is available in 181 Office 365 markets and 19 languages and runs on the Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and web platforms, it has also achieved grade b accessibility and is Tier C security compliant. IT admins can learn more about Microsoft Teams by visiting the Microsoft Virtual Academy website, viewing a video on Microsoft Mechanics, or heading to the Microsoft Teams Tech Community.
